Advanced Placement World History
Course Syllabus 2014-2015
Coach Greenwell
Course Overview
Advanced Placement World History is a two-semester course that examines world history from approximately 8,000 BCE up to the present day. This class approaches history through a chronological as well as thematic approach looking at threads of humanity over time. Students will focus on the relationship of change and continuity of societies throughout history. AP World History offers a balanced global approach, focusing on Africa, Asia, The Americas, and Europe. By combining time periods and historical themes, students will be able to understand and analyze the evolution and interactions of societies throughout history and begin to decipher what shaped the modern world.
Course Objective
AP World History is a college prep course that provides students with an academic experience equivalent to a college survey of world history. Students are expected to do a considerable amount of reading, writing, discussion, and analytical research. Students should prepare for between 4-6 hours of homework per week, including reading and analysis of primary and secondary source documents, study guide questions and practice essays.
Five AP World History Themes
Five AP World History Themes will be used throughout the course to identify the broad patterns and processes that explain change and continuity over time.
1. Interaction Between Humans and the Environment
Demography, Disease, Migration, Patterns of Settlement, Technology
2. Development and Interaction of Cultures
How does contact between different groups within a culture, or between two or more cultures, change or fail to change those cultures? Includes religion, philosophies, ideologies, technology, and artistic styles. How is culture created? How do beliefs grow and spread or decline? Why do ideas become popular or unpopular?
Religions, belief systems, philosophies and ideologies, science and technology, the arts and architecture
3. State – Building, Expansion and Conflict
Why do people need to organize themselves? How is political power distributed? Why do governments and empires succeed and fail? Why do people identify with or fail to identify with leaders, places, and systems?
Political structures and forms of governance, empires, nations and nationalism, revolts and revolutions, regional, trans regional, and global structures and organizations
4. Creation, expansion and interaction of economic systems
How and why do economic systems develop? Why do different systems appear throughout history? Why do they occur at different times in different places? What effect does industrialization have on promoting a global economy?
Agricultural and pastoral production, trade and commerce, labor systems, industrialization, capitalism and socialism
5. Development and Transformation of Social Structures
How does age, gender, beliefs, self-image, traditions, region, race, wealth, poverty, and knowledge, impact the groups we belong to and the rights or obligations we experience?
Gender roles and relations, family and kinship, racial and ethnic construction, social and economic classes
Historical Thinking Skills
Success in the AP World History course and on the AP Exam requires dual competencies: (1) command of the facts and (2) the critical thinking skills necessary to effectively manipulate these facts. The following skills will help students to critically analyze historical information and be able to think like historians.
1. Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence
Historical Argumentation
Appropriate Use of Relevant Historical Evidence
2. Chronological Reasoning
Patterns of Continuity and Change over Time
Periodization
3. Comparison and Contextualization
Comparison
Contextualization
4. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis
Interpretation
Synthesis
Key Concepts
Period 1: Technological and Environmental Transformations, to c. 600 B.C.E / Key Concept 1.1. Big Geography and the Peopling of the EarthKey Concept 1.2. The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural Societies
Key Concept 1.3. The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral and Urban Societies
Period 2:Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies, c. 600 B.C.E to
c. 600 C.E. / Key Concept 2.1. The Development and Codification of Religious and Cultural Traditions
Key Concept 2.2. The Development of States and Empires
Key Concept 2.3. Emergence of Trans regional Networks of Communication and Exchange
Period 3:Regional and Transregional Interactions, c.600 C.E. to c. 1450 / Key Concept 3.1. Expansion and Intensification of Communication and Exchange Networks
Key Concept 3.2. Continuity and Innovation of State Forms and Their Interactions
Key Concept 3.3. Increased Economic Productive Capacity and Its Consequences
Period 4:Global Interactions,
c. 1450 to c. 1750 / Key Concept 4.1. Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange
Key Concept 4.2. New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production
Key Concept 4.3. State Consolidation and Imperial Expansion
Period 5:Industrialization and Global Integration, c. 1750 to c.1900 / Key Concept 5.1. Industrialization and Global Capitalism
Key Concept 5.2. Imperialism and Nation—State Formation
Key Concept 5.3. Nationalism, Revolution and Reform
Key Concept 5.4. Global Migration
Period 6:Accelerating Global Change and Realignments, c.1900 to the Present / Key Concept 6.1. Science and the Environment
Key Concept 6.2. Global Conflicts and Their Consequences
Key Concept 6.3. New Conceptualizations of Global Economy, Society and Culture
Course Material
Class Textbook
Strayer, Robert W.Ways of the World: A Global History with Sources. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2009
ISBN 10: 0-312-64466-3
This contains the text as well as the primary source documents required for the course.
Supplemental Online, Required Resources
Companion Site (http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayerdocutext1e/)
Contains online study guide, Chapter Quizzes, Essay Quizzes and Internet Activities, as well as research and writing help. Some activities may need to be completed and emailed to the instructor.
Supplemental readings may include the following:
Andrea, Alfred J., and James H. Overfield. The HumanRecord: Sources of Global
History Volume I: To 1700. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,2008. Primary-source
reader.
Andrea, Alfred J., and James H. Overfield. The HumanRecord: Sources of Global
History Volume 2: Since 1500. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008.Primary-source
reader.
Shaffer, Lynda, Journal of World History, vol.5.no.1 (1994)
Other Readings
Throughout the year students will be required to read supplemental outside texts and articles, in addition to the regular text and documents. Students will also be required to access the website site that accompanies the primary text. Due dates for all additional readings will be set in conjuncture with text outlines.
Course Expectations
Reading Assignments
You will be assigned reading on a daily basis. You are responsible for maintaining the reading pace. All reading assignments will be given in advance.In addition, you are expected to annotate and highlight all reading assignments. In-class quizzes will be given to make sure that you have an acceptable understanding of the reading. You are expected to spend approximately 1-2 hours outside of class in preparation for each class period. This preparation is essential for success in this course. If you are struggling with the assigned outside reading please discuss this with the instructor.
Written Work
FRQ- Free Response Questions
o This essay requires the students to respond to a prompt using clear organization and a well-developed thesis. The writers are expected to pull from course and reading information to accurately respond to the prompt. Essays are well supported, clearly structured and analytically developed.
DBQ- Document Based Questions
o This essay also requires students to respond to a prompt in a clear and concise manner.However, the students are given between nine to twelve documents to group and create a thesis that responds to the prompt. Essays are clearly organized, use persuasive logic, illustrate authorial point of view, and demonstrate a grasp on higher-level analysis.
Change Over Time Essays
o This essay requires students to look at causation, themes in history and historical process. Essays are well supported, clearly structured and analytically developed.
Comparative Essays
o This essay requires students to analyze global processes and historical themes in different groups and regions. Essays are well supported, clearly structured and analytically developed.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is taken extremely seriously in this classroom. Any offences will result in a zero on the assignment and or test and could possibly yield a drop from the course. Plagiarism is not tolerated.
Oral Participation
A major portion of the class is based on discussion; therefore, as a student you are responsible for participating.Students will be graded on their participation. This comprises of your preparedness, comments, and willingness to learn.In addition, several assignments will be assessed orally; you will present your findings instead of writing them. Please be prepared to participate each and every day.
Exams
Exams are rigorous because they are intended to challenge students at the AP Exam level. Moreover, they are designed to give students frequent experience with the types of multiple-choice questions, free-response questions and document-based questions that appear on the AP World History Exam.Frequent exams also ensure that students read the textbook and supplementary readings, consistently check for understanding, and take copious notes that are thorough and well organized. Students will be assessed periodically throughout the semesters. Exams comprise of essay questions and multiple choice.Students will have a final exam at the end of semester one and a Mock Exam during fourth quarter. The Mock Exam serves as your final for the course.
Grading
Grades will reflect primarily performance on essays and assessments. Other class assignments, quizzes and participation will be incorporated into the grade as well. The course is point-based and follows the following scale:
90-100=A
80-89=B
70-79=C
60-69=D
59-below=F
Attendance
Attendance is essential for success in this class. School policy will be followed. If the student is absent, make-up work is your responsibility and completed on his/her own time. Students are required to check the website for in-class assignments when they are absent. Additional time will not be granted for reading assignments given in advance, or any long-term assignments. The students are expected to be here for the day the test is scheduled. However, if the student knows she/he will be absent, make arrangements to take the test early, otherwise, tests will be taken upon return. Long-term absences will be handled individually by the instructor and the student involved. If the student is absent the day that a long-term assignment is due; the expectation is that the assignment is turned in regardless if the student is not there.
The AP Exam
One of the end goals of the course is the Advanced Placement Exam, which is given in early May. Final grades are reported on a five point scale, with the top grades 3, 4, and 5 often (but not always) honored by colleges either for creditor for recommendation to upper level course load, or both.
The three-hour AP Exam consists of:
1. 70 multiple-choice questions. Some are knowledge based; others require interpretation, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
2. One Change Over Time Essay (COT). The change over time essay usually focuses on causation. Students are expected to demonstrate their understanding of overarching historical process – the how and why of changes in trading patterns, technological developments, or cultural institutions between major time periods.
3. Documents Based Question (DBQ). Integration of knowledge previously acquired with information provided in the documents.
4. One Comparative Essay (CE). The Comparative Essay requires a comparison and/or contrast between at least two groups or regions in an analytical evaluation that relates to the AP World History themes.
Units of Study: Essential Objectives
Five Eras of Study
• Foundations, circa 8000 BCE –600 BCE
600BCE – 600 CE
• 600 – 1450
• 1450 – 1750
• 1750 – 1914
• 1914 – the present
**The units below follow the text and vary slightly from the AP areas of study.
Unit I: Early Societies 8000 BCE – 500 BCE
· Evolution of Man
· Early Society structures
· Formation of Complex Societies
· Mesopotamia
· Indo-European Migration
· Early African Societies
· Harappan and early Indian Societies
· Early Chinese Societies
· Early Societies in Mesoamerica and Oceana
Unit II: Formation of Classical Societies 500 BCE –500 CE
· Rise and Fall of the Persian Empire
· Unification of China
· Development of India
· Empires of the Mediterranean (Greece and Rome)
· Africa and the Mesoamerica
Unit III: Postclassical Era 500 – 1450 CE
· Byzantine Empire
· Expansion of Islam
· Imperial China and the Establishment of Buddhism
· Islamic and Hindu Kingdoms in India
· Foundations of Christianity in Western Europe
· Turkish and Mongol Migration
· African Migration and impact of religion
· Western Europe during the High Middle Ages
· Bubonic Plague
· Exploration and Colonization
Part IV: Global Interdependence 1450 – 1750 CE
· Technology of Exploration
· Colombian Exchange
· Origins of Global Trade
· Protestant Reformation
· Formation of European Nation States
· Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
· European Conquests of the Americas and the Pacific
· States of Africa
· Atlantic Slave Trade
· African Diaspora
· Quest for Stability in China
· Unification of Japan
· Empires of Islam
Part V: Age of Revolution: 1750 – 1914 CE
· Influence of Revolution (America, France, Haiti, Latin America)
· Nationalism in Europe
· Global effects of Industrialization
· Expansion of the United States
· Decline of the Ottoman Empire
· Unrest in Russia
· China and the Opium War
· Imperialism and its Legacy
Part VI:Globalism in the Twenty and Twenty-first Centuries 1914 – Present
· WWI
· Russian Revolution
· Postwar Realities
· Global Depression
· Communism in Russia
· Emergence of Fascism
· Imperial Japan
· Colonialism in Africa
· WWII
· Formation of the Bipolar World
· Communism in China
· Collapse of the Soviet Union and the End of the Cold War
· Independence in India
· Decolonization of Africa
· Globalism in the Twenty-First Century
· Period 1: Technological and Environmental Transformations - to c 600 B.C.E (7 weeks)
o Topic I. Introduction to the course
· Essential Questions
o • What is World History?